MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The last flight from Kosovo carrying officers of the KFOR Russian contingent's staff and command landed at the Chkalovsky airfield in Moscow region on Thursday.
"That is the last flight from Kosovo, which finalizes the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the Balkans," Russian Land Forces Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Valery Yevnevich, who supervised the withdrawal, told the press upon the flight's arrival.
The Land Forces press service told Interfax-Military News Agency earlier that the last train with Russian peacekeepers aboard left Kosovo on Wednesday evening. The train is due to arrive at the Nara terminal in the Moscow region on the morning of July 30.
"The withdrawal of the Russian contingent from the Balkans under the decision of the national administration is keeping strictly to schedule," a press service official said.
Trains and planes with Russian peacekeepers started leaving the Balkans on June 5. The Russian peacekeeping contingent that had served in Boznia within SFOR since January 1996 was withdrawn from June 5 to 14. Its strength before the pullout amounted to 320 personnel.
The withdrawal of the peacekeeping contingent that had been a part of KFOR in Kosovo since June 1999 started on June 17. The contingent numbered 650 officers, warrant officers and professional privates before the pullout.
According to the Land Forces command, Russian peacekeepers seized over 800 pieces of various weapons and over 400,000 ammunition pieces and defused over 12,000 explosive devices while staying in Kosovo. Military doctors of the Russian contingent provided medical aid to 37,000 people, nearly half of them being local residents.